Day 17: Around the Cape League & A Report from Philly
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continue to impress with an 11-3-1 record. Bourne leads their division with a 10-4-1 record. Orleans and Cotuit are nipping at the heels of their respective division leaders. Fifteen or so games into the season and it’s clear we’ve got a competitive situation. Even Wareham and Falmouth (5-10), early laggards, are not out of this thing.
My son and I took in the Mets at Phillies in Major League Baseball action yesterday. Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer has it right – it was a postcard-perfect afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies salvaged the 4-game series with the Mets by winning Sunday’s finale 5-3. Kyle Kendrick got the win and looked sharp. The Phillies bullpen is on life support with all of the injuries. This was the first time I had visited the new park in Philadelphia, which is located adjacent to where the old Veterans Stadium used to stand. The Vet, which seated 60,000 was a cavernous old ballpark that hosted some important playoff action, including the Phillies’ World Series Championship in 1980, which is commemorated with a banner that flies slightly apparent from all of the NLCS pennants in center field. I wrote earlier this year about PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Citizens Bank Park does not have the stunning centerfield cityscape of PNC, but I think it’s a livelier, nicer ballpark in general. The food offerings are amazing and the general excitement of Sunday’s 42,289 fans was palpable. I think 40,000 of those fans were dressed in some sort of Phillies regalia. My son even shed his Mariner’s Betancourt shirt to put on a Cole Hamels shirt. There are lots of former Cape Cod League players on both the Mets and Phillies rosters. I’m sure I don’t have them all:
METS: Bill Wagner (Brewster), Phillip Humber (Y-D Red Sox)
PHILLIES: Michael Bourn (Y-D), Pat Burrell (Hyannis), Aaron Rowand (Brewster), Chase Utley (Brewster and Cotuit)
We sat along the rightfield line and were treated to a towering upper deck home run in the 7th by rightfielder Victorino. The “Chaser” was Chase Utley’s stand-up triple, which immediately followed the homer. He scored on an Aaron Rowand single.
Tonight I may catch the Cubs at Nationals in RFK, not quite as nice of a ballpark. But, hey, it’s baseball and Lilly is pitching.